She later told her husband, Xiao Luo, 28, that she had gone to answer the door but someone had kicked it, knocking her in the head and making her fall to the floor.

A bag was put over her head before she was stripped and tied up, she claimed.

Her husband told local media: "She thought maybe it was a sex attacker but it was something much worse. The attacker cut off her breasts with a pair of scissors."

After the alleged attack, the young woman, who was in agony, had the hood pulled from her face and she recognised her attacker as a lone woman, a person she had once worked with at a local factory named Meng Tsao.

According to detectives who arrested Meng, she admitted carrying out the attack and said it was because the other woman had stolen her husband.

However, when they spoke to the alleged attacker's husband, Meng Pan, he denied that he had been in an affair with Xiao Lin, although he did have a crush on her - but said she had turned him down.

He said he had once told his wife that he found Xiao Lin attractive, so when he then decided to file for divorce, his wife had become convinced that she was to blame and decided to get revenge.